Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I just wanted to draw your attention to a worthwhile post by The Anchoress about free speech. It seems some elites think America should be more like Europe. I know, shocking. Don't you just wait for the day when some knobby headed freak from an Ivy League school says that Europe should be more like America? Yeah, right. That will happen. NOT!

Hurt feelings are the price of freedom, and I’d rather have 50 emails calling me all sorts of names because of my Christianity or my classically liberal politics (some call it “conservatism,” but then again today’s “conservatives,” used to be called “liberals,” and today’s “liberals” used to be called “socialists”, so deal) or because of my stance on any given issue, than have everyone moving about the country in a silent agony of self-censorship and repression.

Free speech is part of what makes America great, and singular. It is what leaves America unbent when the rest of the world is cowering. Americans will die for freedom - for the freedom to say what they like, be who they are and to bend the knee only if they choose to do so, and then (usually) before no one but the Creator.

I tried to explain the concept of bowing to no man to my children. They had a hard time understanding why someone would rather die than be a slave. It was a tough sell that to not be free, was to not have life.

In some ways, liberals are perpetual children. As long as they can be the playground police, and can ensure everyone is "nice", they're happy. They never consider how their behavior isn't nice to others. Too much niceness is its own tyranny.